SEN. CHUCK HAGEL STORMS IN FOR CASTLE (AND HIMSELF)

Forget the "Straight Talk Express" from John McCain's
presidential campaign. U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel blew into
Delaware on Monday evening with something like the "Hard
Truth Cannonball."

Hagel shook up his fellow Republicans by warning that a
Category 5 political season was upon them and they had
better prepare, or else the voters would do to them what
Katrina did to New Orleans.

"We may be faced with one of those elections where a
lot of people go down," he said.

Elected to the Senate from Nebraska in 1996, Hagel
officially was here to speak at a private fund-raiser
for U.S. Rep. Michael N. Castle, the Republican
ex-governor who has made a career out of rising above
the political floodwaters and clearly does not intend to
be swamped this time, either.

Hagel also is part of the vast gene pool of
candidates looking at the 2008 presidential race, and
Delaware is one of a handful of early states voting right
after the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary.
Helping Castle also meant helping himself, and it seemed
to work out beautifully for both of them.

By the end of the two-hour reception, Castle had
added $30,000 or $40,000 to his campaign treasury,
already a robust $1.2 million and counting. It is practically an embarrassment of riches compared
to Dennis Spivack, his Democratic opponent, whose
sad-sack account is nearly bare after he loaned himself $90,000
and spent it.

Hagel got what he came for, too. "I turned to the
person standing next to me and said, Chuck Hagel for
president!" said Jan Jessup, a marketing consultant from
Wilmington.

The fund-raiser was held on the stone patio of a
house in Westover Hills, the manicured duchy on the
outskirts of Wilmington. The crowd of about 150 people
was particularly flush with prospering bankers -- not
surprising with Castle and Hagel both sitting on banking
committees. Hagel even wore a gold tie.

The Republicans mustered past members of Congress to
add luster to the event. Former Gov. Pierre S. "Pete" du
Pont and Thomas B. Evans Jr. were there, but not Harry
G. "Hal" Haskell Jr. because he was in Rehoboth Beach
for a banquet honoring former Republican Lt. Gov. Eugene
D. Bookhammer.

"Needless to say," Castle told his contributors, "all
of you will be hearing from each of them."

Castle noted how grateful he was for the pleasant
weather. After a storm in the morning, it was Hagel who
brought the thunder.

Hagel, like Castle, is known for his independent
streak, forged by his experiences as a decorated Vietnam
veteran and an entrepreneur who made millions by risking
all he had to start a cell phone company. Now 59, he did
not get into politics until 10 years ago when he ran
audaciously for the U.S. Senate against a sitting
Nebraska governor and won an election he was supposed to
lose.

He thinks Iran was always a worse problem than Iraq.
He believes the country is crying for a "Manhattan
Project" on energy. He prefers a foreign policy that
operates not so much unilaterally as in concert with
allies. This was no George Bush clone speaking.

Hagel backed McCain for president in 2000, but 2008
could be different.

He found his way to Delaware as others already have in
the Republican field, including former Speaker Newt
Gingrich and Virginia Sen. George Allen. New York Gov.
George Pataki will be in this weekend for the Republican
state convention, and there was talk at the fund-raiser
that McCain and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist could
be here soon, too.

Hagel has a certain familiarity with Delaware. He
came in as a speaker for a Biden Seminar, one of the
periodic sessions that Democratic Sen. Joseph R. Biden
Jr. holds for his supporters and often features
Republicans. Some Delaware friends once held a
fund-raiser for Hagel here, and he says he used to visit
the beaches in the 1970s -- not that he is talking about
what he did then.

When Hagel got down to politics, the crowd was
riveted. He explained the threat to the Republican Party
in numbers that everyone could understand -- a 32
percent approval rating for Bush that is "dangerously
low" and $4-a-gallon gasoline prices that he suspects
are on the way.

Republican candidates will be in the crosshairs in
2006 because the party has been in charge of the
Congress for 12 years and the White House for six years,
and it ought not to count on keeping the presidency in
2008 just because Hillary Rodham Clinton turns off so
many people, he said.

"This election is going to be, I think, one of the
most defining in modern times. It frames the
presidential election for 2008," Hagel said. "We need to
reflect a little on our leadership. That analysis is
going to be forced on us. That's the way the world
works. That's the way politics works."

He predicted these early years of the 21st Century
would be as transformational as the time after World War
II, but he saw opportunity if the party could produce
"clear-headed leadership, very solid leadership."

Otherwise, he said the 2006 election could be 1974
all over again, the Watergate election when Republicans
lost in droves, sometimes simply because of a picture
showing them with Richard Nixon.

Pete du Pont, who nervously survived the Watergate
election to win his third House term, agreed that 2006
had the same feel to it as 1974. "Absolutely it does. I
think it's worse than '74, unless the Republican Party
gets off its butt," he said.

Hagel's message left Ferris Wharton happy to be
hunkered down in Delaware while the federal winds blew
overhead. "I'm running for attorney general, you know."